Why Donald Trump Is Probably Two States From Victory
Source: The New York Times By Nate Cohn @Nate_Cohn APRIL 26, 2016 Donald J. Trump is essentially two key states from the nomination. By sweeping five states on Tuesday, he pulled […]
Widening Cracks Imperil Croatia’s Ruling Coalition
Source. Balkan Insight Cracks between the Patriotic Coalition and the Bridge of Independent Lists, MOST, which make up Croatia’s ruling coalition, are deepening and jeopardizing the government’s very survival. More.
Spain’s cursed village of witches
Source: BBC By Inka Piegsa-Quischotte 27 April 2016 How does a tiny Spanish village of just 62 souls come to be excommunicated in its entirety and cursed with a spell […]
Bangladesh: serial killing in the name of God
Majid Nawaz, The Daily Beast LONDON — There really is no other way to put this. Free thinkers in Bangladesh are being serially hacked to death in their homes. An infamous hit list appeared in 2013 naming 84 “atheist bloggers.” By the end of 2015 there had been seven such murdersacross […]
The World’s Newest Major Religion: No Religion
Source: National Geographic By Gabe Bullard As secularism grows, atheists and agnostics are trying to expand and diversify their ranks. More people than ever before are identifying as atheist, agnostic, […]
UK Student Union President Opposed Condemning ISIS
Students at leading universities in the United Kingdom are launching bids to break ties with the National Union of Students (NUS) following the election of Malia Bouattia to the presidency. Bouattia previously opposed a student motion condemning the Islamic State on the grounds that to do so would be “Islamophobic” and would […]
Zika Has Spread to 43 Countries
Source: Time Here’s where Zika has spread around the world The Zika virus is continuing to spread around the globe, as health responders scramble to contain outbreaks and understand the effects of the virus, including serious brain defects like microcephaly. The World Health Organization recently warned that there is potential […]
Shakespeare’s complex views of the Islamic world
Economist Blogs: 1616 deserves attention as the year in which William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died—it also saw the first sustained and documented contact between the Islamic world and Britain. The life of Britain’s most celebrated writer coincided with significant diplomatic relations between Protestant England and Muslim dynasties in […]
Lindsay Lohan, Winston Churchill, and the long history of flirting with Islam
Lindsay Lohan, the American actress, is said to be “exploring” Islam. Speculation was first stirred by a photograph of the celebrity carrying a copy of the Koran while completing a stint of community service. This week, in an interview with the Sun, Lohan told the British tabloid that she was indeed reading Islam’s […]
German Anti-migrant Party Seeks to Curb Jewish and Muslim Ritual Slaughter
Haaretz.com: Germany’s leading right-populist party has included the banning of some Jewish and Muslim rituals and symbols in its convention platform. The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party, or AFD, in the program to be presented at its party convention April 30-May 1 in Stuttgart, called for an end to the […]
U.N. torture watchdog urges Saudi to halt flogging, amputations
Source: Reuters BY STEPHANIE NEBEHAY United Nations torture experts called on Saudi Arabia on Friday to stop corporal punishment, including flogging and amputations, practices that the Gulf kingdom considers an integral part of its interpretation of Islamic law. The committee that monitors the U.N. Convention against Torture, in its first […]
Why Are So Many Christians Obsessed With Predicting the Rapture?
Source: Pacific Standard By Laura Ortberg Turner The world did not come to an end on September 6, 1994. Nor on May 21, 2011, or October 21 of that same […]
Indians take to Buddhist chanting to alleviate urban stress
Source: Associated Press By NIRMALA GEORGE NEW DELHI (AP) — The bank executive, the book publisher and the social worker had one thing in common: Their hectic lives in the […]
Swedish Greens jolted by claims of Islamist infiltration
Source: Associated Press By KARL RITTER STOCKHOLM (AP) — One refused to shake hands with a female journalist. Another compared Israel to Nazi Germany. A third was seen doing hand […]
‘I must survive to seek justice,’ says widow of murdered Bangladesh blogger
Source: The Guardian By Saad Hammadi in Dhaka Asha Mone has been living in constant fear for her life. It is eight months since her husband, the Bangladeshi secular blogger […]
Bangladesh LGBT editor hacked to death
Source: BBC Bangladesh police say a top gay rights activist and editor at the country’s only LGBT magazine is one of two people who have been hacked to death. The […]
Turkish parliament speaker provokes row with call for religious constitution
Source: Reuters BY AYLA JEAN YACKLEY AND ERCAN GURSES A call by Turkey’s parliament speaker for a new constitution to drop references to secularism provoked opposition condemnation and a brief […]
Syrian refugees flown out by pope start new life in Rome
Families were preferred, as were those whose homes had been destroyed in Syria, and all had to have proper documents Image Credit: Reuters Syrian couple Rami, 51, and Suhila, 50, walk with their sons Abdul Majid (right), 15, and Rashid, 18, at the Sant’Egidio community in Rome. Published: 18:56 April […]
Italy says Nato three months from Libya coast mission
Mission would be part of a broader Italian plan to close the Western Mediterranean route into the European Union Published: 16:29 April 25, 2016 AFP Rome: Nato is three months away from launching patrols off Libya as part of a plan to stop refugees arriving in Italy, Italian Defence […]
Queen Rania calls for collective global response to refugee crisis during Lesbos visit
By JT – Apr 25,2016 – JORDAN TIMES AMMAN — Her Majesty Queen Rania on Monday called for a collective global response to the growing refugee crisis, explaining that its impact is much greater than any one country or any one region’s capacity to cope. The Queen made these statements […]